Little Maxwell
by Wildmuttpuppy
Summary: Short little dabbles of Ben and Rook raising their son Max together.
1. Chapter 1

(age: 1-year-old)

"Thanks again for picking me up boy's. My car just didn't want to cooperate today." Ben smiled at him mom while she got in the truck. "No problem Mom, glad we could help out." Sandra looked at the back seats to see they were empty. "Hey where's Maxwell?" Rook started to drive and spoke up. "We left him with your husband back at home. He did not mind watching him for a few minutes."  
Sandra raised an eyebrow. "You sure Carl can handle a human/revonnagander baby? He had a hard enough time watching Ben when he was that age." "Oh come on Mom I'm sure Dad can handle little Max. How did he have a hard time watching me?" Sandra chuckled while the memories filled her mind. "One time you got your hands on some permanent markers and gave him a make over while he was asleep, one time you got in to the fridge and dumped everything on the floor, and twice he thought he lost you when it turns out you were just hiding in your closet."

Rook snickered but quickly covered it with a cough. Ben just rolled his eyes. "I doubt Max will do something like that, he's pretty well-behaved." When they finally arrived back home Ben opened the front door and stopped dead in his tracks. "Whoa..." Sandra and Rook looked over his shoulders and gasped. There were hand and foot prints all over the walls. When they walked inside they found more and more of them.  
Rook rubbed his fingers on the hand print on the wall and sniffed it. "Amber Ogia jelly?" Ben walked into the living room, he spotted his Dad sleeping on the couch and Maxwell sitting on the floor with his back turned to him. "Max! There you are!" Max turned to look at Ben. His face was covered in Amber Ogia jelly and so was his hands, feet, and tail. Max held up the now empty jar to Ben.

"Nom-Nom!" Ben picked up Max, cringing when he felt the sticky substance get all over his hands. "Man this is going to take forever to wash this out of your fur." Sandra walked up to the couch and glared at her sleeping husband. "CARL!" Carl suddenly sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes. "I wasn't sleeping! I was resting my eyes." Ben walked up to his Dad and held sticky Maxwell at arm's length. "You sure about that Dad?"

Carl looked at Max in shock, he then looked around the room then up. "How did he get footprints on the ceiling?!" Everyone else looked, and sure enough there were little foot prints on the ceiling. Rook looked at his son. "Rook Maxwell Tennyson, you are one strange child." Ben chuckled. "Of course he is. You really expected him to be normal being raised by us?" "No. Not really."

Max giggled while trying to lick the yummy jelly off of his tail.


	2. Chapter 2

(age: 3-years-old)

It was late at night, and thanks to the big "save the city" battle earlier today, Ben and Rook were out like a light. Though when a loud clasp of thunder that shook the room woke them up, they both sighed. From under his pillow Ben spoke up. "Five, four, three, two, one." Their bedroom quickly swung open and three-year-old Maxwell jumped onto his parents bed.

Rook chuckled. "Did the storm frighten you Max?" Max shook his head. "No."

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

Max almost jumped out of his fur and quickly got under the blankets between his Dad and Father. Ben pulled his head out from under the pillow and snickered. "You sure about that kiddo?" The lump under the covers moved slighting. "Maybe a little..." Max popped his head out from the blankets. "Why does it have to be so loud?" Rook yawned before answering his son. "Thunder is caused because lightning heats up the air, to about 30 000 C, causing it to expand quickly. The rumbling occurs as the sound passes through atmospheric layers at different temperatures."

Max just stared at him blankly, not really under standing much of that. Ben just rolled his eyes. "Come on Rook he's 3. Do you really think he'd know what you're talking about?" Rook thought that over for a minute. "Point taken." Ben sat up and rubbed Max's head. "The reason why it's so loud is because, um...The clouds are bowling!" Rook raised an eyebrow while Max looked at him curiously.  
"Clouds bowl?" "Yup. Every time the ball hit the pins it causes thunder and lightning. The louder the thunder, the more pins they hit." Right when Ben said that thunder boomed through the sky. Rook smirked, deciding to play along. "Goodness, that sounded like a strike." Max giggled, he then looked up at Ben. "Can you tell me a story Dad?"

Ben sighed. "Kiddo I already told you one before you went to bed." Max started to give Ben the puppy eyes, making him groan. "I hate it when you and your Father do that. Fine. How about the one time when I was 10 and you aunt and I went to a music festival with your great grandpa?" Maxwell smiled and got comfortable in the bed. Rook decided to listen as well before going back to sleep, he always enjoyed these stories.


	3. Chapter 3

(age: 3-years-old)

Little three-year-old Maxwell drowsily walked into the kitchen, hungry for what ever his Father made for breakfast. only to be surprised when he found his Dad was cooking. "Dad?" Ben looked up from the, what ever he was trying to make, when Max spoke up. "Hey kiddo. Sleep well?" Max nodded then looked around.  
"Where's Father?" Ben sighed and dumped the food onto some plates. "He's not feeling well today. We need to stay quiet so he can rest." "Dads get sick?" Ben snickered and put the plates on the table. "Everyone gets sick kiddo. Even Dads. Eat up." Max climbed into his seat and looked at the food on the plate. "...What is this?" "It's scrambled eggs."

Max looked at his Dad confused. "Eggs are black?" Ben sat down and rolled his eyes. "They're just a little burnt, it's not that bad." Ben then took a bit out of the food, and immediately cringed. Spitting what was in his mouth in a napkin, he looked at his son. "You know what, just grab an apple from the fridge. We'll order pizza later." After jumping out of his seat and grabbing an apple, Max went into the living room to watch his morning cartoons.

Ben quickly dumped the burnt food in the trash, filled up a cup with water, and went for his and Rook's room. When he opened the door he saw the poor revonnahgander laying in bed, looking absolutely miserable. Ben placed the cup on the nightstand, sat on the bed, and rubbed his boyfriends back. Rook softly moaned and opened his eyes. Ben smiled.  
"Hey Rook, how you feeling?" Rook sighed. "Not well. How did breakfast go?" By the look on Ben's face, Rook could already figure out the answer. "Not so great. Max had to have an apple for breakfast instead." Rook chuckled. "No wonder I make all the meals." "Shut up." Rook would have laughed at his boyfriend, but instead he coughed and rubbed his sore throat.

"I am really not enjoying this." Ben started to pet Rook's head. "It's a cold Rook, they're not ment to be fun." Rook mumbled something that Ben didn't really understand. Once he was back to sleep Ben got up and left to watch T.V. with Max.

A few hours later, Rook started to wake up again. He could feel someone else was in the bed with him. He looked and saw Maxwell curled up next to him with something in his hand. Carefully, without waking up his son, Rook removed it from his hand. Even with the lack of light Rook could see what was on the paper. It had three stick people who greatly resembled him, Ben, and Maxwell. at the top Max wrote. "I luv u fatr."

Rook chuckled and wrapped his arm around his sleeping son, he whispered. "I love you too Maxwell."


	4. Chapter 4

(Age: 8-years-old)

In Bellwood on a Monday morning, the Rook-Tennyson family were enjoying their breakfast before getting ready for their day. At lest the two young adults were, Maxwell had his head resting in his hand looking like he was about to fall back to sleep. Rook quickly switch Max's plate with an oven mitt before his head slipped out of his hand and faceplanted on the table.  
Ben rubbed Max's back. "Max, were you up all night playing video games?" Max drowsily lifted his head and rubbed his eyes. "No..." Ben just rolled his eyes, not really believing him. "Right, well hurry up and finish eating, you need to get ready for school kiddo." Max just groaned and started eating. When he finished he cleaned up, got his bag, and after getting an unwanted kiss from his parents (kids that age are always like that) he walked to school.

While cleaning up the dishes Rook looked at Ben. "Maybe we should check on him later tonight to make sure he is not playing his games past bedtime." Ben just shrugged while putting the dishes in the dishwasher for Rook. "Fine with me. Come on, we need to get ready for a day of kicking bad guy butt."

Later that night, after losing rock paper scissors to Rook, Ben went to his sons bedroom and carefully peaked inside. He was hoping to see Max on his top bunk asleep, but expected to find him sitting in front of his T.V. playing games. What he didn't expect was Max sitting on his bottom bunk, hugging his pillow with his tail wrapped around him. Ben opened the door all the way and turned on the lights.  
"Max? You okay?" Max cringed and shielded his eyes from the light. "Could you knock next time?" "Sorry. But you didn't answer my question." Max sighed and flopped backwards on the lumpy futon mattress. "Not really..." Walking over the messy bedroom floor, Ben sat down next to him. "Well what's wrong? Bullies at school again?" "No." "You and Isaac get in an argument?" "No." "Then what is it?"

After hesitating for a few seconds, Max spoke up. "Being a Plumber is really dangerous right?" Ben raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, it can be at times, and if you're not careful." "Have people... d-died?" Ben's eyes widen, figuring out why Max was asking this. "Max, Your Father and I have been Plumbers ever since we were teenagers and we're still doing just fine. What made you think of that?"  
Max sat up and hugged the pillow tightly. "I had a nightmare yesterday. Great Grandpa Max and Aunt Gwen told me you two went on a mission a-and..." Max buried his face in the pillow when he felt tears were about to fall out of his eyes. Ben wrapped his arms around Max, feeling his heart sink to his stomach that his son was worried both his parents would die.

Rook walked into the room, wondering what was taking Ben so long, but was surprised by what he saw. "What happened?" Ben rubbed Max's back to help him calm down and answered his husband. "He had a nightmare that we never came home from a mission." Rook sat next to their son and rubbed his head of messy dark brown hair. "Oh Maxwell, it is okay."  
Muffled by the pillow, Max sniffed. "I-I don't want you guys to die.." Ben gave Max a squeeze. "Kiddo we're not going to die. It was just a bad dream." Max lifted his head off his pillow and tried to dry his wet furry cheeks. "But i-it could happen. I've heard how dangerous it can be a-and I, I'm just, scared..." Rook cupped Max's chin and tilted his head up to look at him.

"Maxwell, We know that our job can be dangerous, and we know it can be scary for you. But what we do protects you and billions of people from harm." Ben nodded. "Yeah. Ever since I was 10, I took it upon myself to protect people on earth, to make sure they got home to their families in one piece. Yes it can be really dangerous, but if you're smart and know what you're doing then you won't get killed."  
Rook gave a small smile. "And we are most certainly not going to leave you Max." Ben chuckled. "You couldn't get ride of us even if you wanted to." a ghost of a smile formed on his face before disappearing. "You had a lot of nightmares before too right Dad?" Ben sighed. "I still do. Pressure of being a super hero for ya." "How do you deal with them?" Ben thought that over for a minute.

"Well talking about it normally helps. I also remind myself that everything is still okay, that it was just a dream. Though having a big furry alien to hug helped big time." Ben and Rook chuckled while Max stuck out his tongue. "I asked for nightmare advice, not Dad cootie info." Ben snickered. "Sorry. so feeling better?" Max nodded. "A little." "Think you can go back to sleep?" "Yeah, I think so."  
Rook and Ben stood up while Maxwell climbed up to his top bunk and got under the covers. After a quick kiss goodnight from both of his parents, the two adults shut off the lights and left the room. While heading for their own room Ben looked up at Rook. "I never realized how scary that would be for a kid to have parents that work a dangerous job."

Rook nodded. "My younger siblings did worry a little when I first became a Plumber, but after a while their worries calmed down. though it never disappeared. A lot of children have to deal with things like this." Ben sighed. "Yeah, I know. But one thing's for sure. No villain is ever going to finish us off." Rook chuckled. "You would think after all these years they would learn by now."


End file.
